When the patient is allowed to reach adult life with the disability unrelieved, he becomes subject to attacks of _balanitis_; and the parts may ulcerate or even slough. In a case seen by the writer, where at the time no symptoms of inflammation were present, the retained deposits of smegma had ulcerated through the prepuce at various points--projecting from this exactly like chalk-stones from the fingers of a gouty person. In a unique case cited by Erichsen, 'Dr. Wisham, of Fyzabad, removed no fewer than 426 calculi, varying in size from a pin's head to a small bean, from this situation, in the person of a native of India, sixty years of age, who came under treatment for what appeared to be a large tumour at the end of the penis, the true nature of which was not detected until, on removing it, the knife grated against the contained calculi.' The defect constitutes a serious impediment to impregnation; in the event of an acquired local disorder, its presence seriously hinders diagnosis, and altogether precludes appropriate treatment. It has been supposed, and not without plausibility, to predispose to _epithelioma_. A case is given by Mr. Oliver Pemberton; and others have been reported. There can be no question that, under such circumstances, the presence of malignant disease about the glans would much longer remain undetected than in a normal state of the parts; and that the prospects of cure by operative removal would be proportionately lessened. Only comparatively mild examples of phimosis, in which the adhesions produced little or no constriction, and did not at all interfere with urination, could thus have been suffered to pass unrelieved until the subjects were far past maturity. Phimosis, as an _acquired_ condition, is of frequent occurrence in an _acute_ form; as the result of inflammatory oedema of the prepuce in youths and adults. This, again, may be a consequence of simple balanitis, the result of want of cleanliness, combined with disordered general health and a catarrhal state of all the mucous membranes; in which event it usually yields to mild measures, such as the injection of warm fluids under the foreskin. In by far the greater number of instances it is produced by venereal infection; and imperatively needs prompt operation, usually in the guise of slitting up the structure on a director. In a _chronic_ form, slowly and gradually coming on, and very intractable to remedial measures, it is not seldom seen in old men of gouty habit; and of consequently unhealthy and irritable mucous membranes. The pathology and treatment of ACQUIRED phimosis do not fall within the scope of the present work, but it is necessary to point out that these are essentially different from those of the congenital; and that the latter needs consideration upon principles totally diverse.